White House lawyers reportedly recommended to Donald Trump that Jared Kushner should resign from his role as senior adviser before reports about his undisclosed Russian contacts became public.
Concerns about the President's son-in-law's possible entanglement in a US probe into Russian interference in the presidential election led a number of Mr Trump's lawyers to conclude he should step down, according to a report.
Although the view was not held by every member of the White House legal team, it was expressed to Mr Trump during at least one meeting in June, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
The President's lawyers were reportedly concerned that someone so close to the President appeared to have had the most interactions with the Russians. They were also worried about his failure to report contact with foreign officials when applying for his security clearance, sources told the paper.
Mr Kushner, husband of Mr Trump's daughter Ivanka, said in July he had four contacts with senior Russian officials during the campaign and transition, but denied colluding with Moscow.
Aides drafted a statement in preparation for Mr Kushner's resignation, where he would say critics were wrongly weaponising meetings, two sources told the paper.
Yet the President disagreed with his lawyers' conclusion that Mr Kushner should resign, saying he did not believe he had done anything wrong. Mr Kushner still acts as a senior adviser to Mr Trump.
Mr Trump's personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, issued a statement denying The Wall Street Journal's report, saying: “I never discussed with other lawyers for the President that Jared Kushner should step down from his position at the White House, I never recommended to the President that Mr Kushner should step down from that position and I am not aware that any other lawyers for the President made any such recommendation either.”
